Bail reduction denied for woman accused of killing dog

A request to withdraw bail was denied for a Rochester woman accused of breaking into the home of her estranged husband and killing his dog.

Philip Anselmo

More than a dozen relatives and friends of Daniel Consilio packed into the cramped courtroom at the Farmington Town Hall on Wednesday night to hear whether his ex-wife — being held in jail for allegedly breaking into his home and stabbing his dog to death — would be granted a reduction in bail.

Caryn A. Consilio, 29, of Rochester, is accused of breaking into Daniel Consilio’s home at 5717 Running Brook Road in Farmington just before midnight on Dec. 15. She is accused of smashing a window to get inside, stealing checks and a laptop computer, and killing her ex-husband’s Pomeranian, Maggie.

Before the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Valone spoke with the Daniel Consilio’s supporters, who arrived early and filled every seat from the back wall to the front row behind the prosecution’s table. The other side of the room was vacant.

Caryn Consilio, clad in the tan garb of the Ontario County Jail, was led into the courtroom in chains, her head trembling. Her attorney, Marc Infantino, asked that Justice Morris H. Lew withdraw the bail, which was set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond.

“The bail is prohibitive,” Infantino said. “It may as well be $1 million in the case of my client.”

Valone argued that the defendant had committed many other crimes and had been stalking Daniel Consilio since July, “flaunting orders of protection.” Caryn Consilio has thus shown that if released without bail, she would continue to disobey such orders, Valone said.

“She represents a clear and continuing danger ... intending to harm individuals,” Valone said. “We are asking for bail to be raised to $50,000 and $100,000.”

Lew commented on the seriousness of the charges and decided to neither raise nor withdraw the bail.

After the hearing, Daniel Consilio — who could not legally attend the proceedings and waited with his girlfriend in another room — spoke of what he called constant stalking and harassment.

When he arrived home from a holiday party that night, he said, the home was “completely destroyed” and he did not hear barking. When he went upstairs into a spare room, he found the Pomeranian, mangled and heaped against a pillow in the corner with “blood everywhere.”

“We can’t even walk into that room anymore,” Consilio said.

He said he and Caryn Consilio separated three months after they were married and divorced nine months later.